Bulls, dust and broken bones

and a damn good weekend out! We had been looking to attend a rodeo ever since we came to Oz, but it seemed whenever we arrived somewhere we were just too late, or too early and had to get on.

Aileron, home of the giant aboriginal statue, is just 125kms north of Alice, and we were able to spend a couple of extra days in Alice (a good excuse!) to time our arrival at a camp in Aileron just 300 mtrs from the showfield.

I have trouble staying on a docile horse, so I can really appreciate what these guys (and gals) do, these bulls and horses come out of the chute bucking and diving, determined to get the rider off his back.

Often they do, some riders only last a couple of seconds. But others last the full eight seconds and more, and dismount with some style. They are then marked according to how well they rode, and indeed how hard the animal tried to get them off!

We met a young man who had entered the novice steer riding, those animals have been castrated so they are smaller and not as fierce as the big bulls. But don’t let that fool you- they don’t like having someone on their back, and they let them know it!

There are professionals who live their lives just following the rodeo trail, they are seriously good at their job. 

But that’s not to say they don’t get hurt, one of them was kicked on the shoulder by a bull after he had dismounted and dislocated it. But he was riding again later believe it or not!!

We saw a couple of guys carried off in neck braces and on a spinal board, certainly one went off to Alice in a hurry, the other recovered after a short while. The first guy turned up back the next day, he was OK.

They start them young in rodeos, six is normal. They put them on the back of what they call a poddy calf and hold them on while the calf bucks, and it can be fierce! Fortunately they wear “flak” jackets and helmets, so they rarely get hurt at that age. The kids love it!

But the really big events are the open bull rides. These are serious, and the animals are huge and hate to be confined,and even worse, have a strap between their legs to irritate them!

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 No saddles of course, just a strap under their breasts for the rider to hang on to. And the rider always has to have one hand free, not allowed to touch the bull with that one at all otherwise he loses points. No hard hats and jackets for these guys!

All the time there are three clowns in the ring to distract the bull from attacking the rider after he was thrown off. Some of the guys can’t get up immediately if they are winded or injured, and the clowns really put themselves at risk to protect them. Brave men these.

Then there is the Bronco riding, again they come out of the chute really fast, bucking and galloping round the arena. One of the guys in the competition is the All Australia Champion Bareback rider, and he was brilliant.

But most of them ride on special saddles, with a hole that the rider can grip, but again they must have one hand free, often with their hat in it. 

Most didn’t make the eight seconds, but some did and qualified for the prize money, which can be as much as $1000 first, and $800 second. So it’s worth winning. Even the kids on the poddys can get $100.

But they select the worst bull and horse for the feature rides, and draw the rider out of a hat from volunteers. If they do the eight seconds they get as much as $2000, so this is professional stuff. The guy with the dislocated shoulder put himself in for it, but wasn’t drawn.

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gain there are a couple of riders in the ring with them to distract the horse after the rider has got off, and to catch the horse to take off the saddle and crutch straps.

There are fun events too, (they are all fun really), like the kid’s talent show, and the kid’s whip cracking event. One twelve year old had a whip in each hand and was cracking them continually, he won $100. Then there was the Mexican donkey race, the  adult competitors, and there was a lot of them, had to dress up in a poncho and Mexican hat, eat chili beans and drink Tequilla, then run to the chutes, climb on a bareback donkey and complete the course. Some of the donkeys were more willing than others! That was great fun, but one guy mistreated his donkey and was booed off.

Rotary from Alice did the catering, they were at it all day from 6-30am to midnight, producing burgers, bacon and eggs sarnies, soft drinks, anything for the thousand or so spectators who virtually lived on the site in swags and tents. I had been warned not to volunteer, so I kept out of it! And the ladies from the Variety Club of Alice did the gate, they worked hard all weekend too!

What a super weekend! We all went home absolutely filthy with the dust, but very happy indeed. We met some great people, locals as well as travellers like ourselves.   A lot of the competitors were from local stations, and over 1000 spectators were there cheering on their favourites. But once again I'll leave you with some good pics